Rejected petition Convicted London rioters should NOT lose all benefits.

Another e-petition calls for convicted rioters to lose benefit payments. This is very a short-sighted argument as it will only serve to exacerbate socio-economic inequalities and, by extension, the tensions currently playing themselves out on the streets of Britain.

We should not condone the violence, but nor should we condemn rioters to a future of social impotence in which those most in need have no access to support. If benefits are removed then we will have ignored the anger already displayed by young, coloured people to the social and economic exclusion evident in modern society, and made the situation a whole lot worse.

As such the government should not be tempted to weigh the fickle whims and biased fears of the majority against the welfare of the minority by removing the benefits of convicted rioters, but instead consider the more significant long-term social and economic implications of such a decision.